Blogging the San Diego Padres… established 1997

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The good folks at Padres Public have invited me to blog about our favorite team over there. I’ll be posting, for reasons that should be obvious, under the name Son of a Duck. To recap, here’s where my stuff currently appears: Baseball Prospectus – AL/NL West, subscription-based Son of a Duck – Padres… it’s like [...]

We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time -T.S. Eliot As another season draws to a close, so does another year of following the Padres at Ducksnorts. And while our favorite baseball team will return [...]

Padres skipper Bud Black started Alberto Gonzalez at first base on Friday evening against the Dodgers. The results were predictably awful, as Ted Lilly and three relievers proceeded to blank the home club on four hits. With Kyle Blanks and Jesus Guzman nursing injuries and a lefty on the mound, Black’s options were limited. He [...]

Hey, how ’bout a sweep at Coors Field? There’s still time for the Padres to knock the Rockies out of fourth place (c’mon, pretend that’s a worthy goal). I especially like that Anthony Bass needed just 25 pitches to get through the entire Colorado lineup once and 52 to get through 5 innings. Efficiency is [...]

Nice outing by Cory Luebke on Monday night at Coors Field, eh? Luebke and Ernesto Frieri combined to spin the 25th one-hitter in Padres history. The only blemish was a two-run homer to dead center off the bat of Rockies second baseman Mark Ellis. Luebke fell behind in the count, 3-1, and then grooved a [...]

I’m up to my eyeballs researching players who walked a lot. Did you know that the longest streak of drawing one or more walks in consecutive games since at least 1919 is 22, by Roy Cullenbine, who did it in 1947? Did you also know that the longest such streak by a currently active player [...]

I’m a little concerned about Tim Stauffer’s workload this season. The obvious reason for this, which I mention in my latest at Baseball Prospectus ($) — it’s about that bizarre walkoff walk/protest game between the Padres and Diamondbacks this past Saturday — is that Stauffer has been a completely different pitcher down the stretch than [...]

The mind will wander while driving along I-25, south from Albuquerque, through Socorro, to Truth or Consequences and points beyond. The Rio Grande traces the interstate, lining a verdant path through the dusty corridor of southern New Mexico. A man walks along the side of the road, carrying a backpack and a sign that reads, [...]

Jed Hoyer’s predecessor, Kevin Towers, was known as “The Sludge Merchant” for his ability (born out of necessity) to pick up discarded scraps and turn them into functioning parts. Claiming Scott Linebrink off waivers and flipping him for Joe Thatcher after five great seasons, stealing Heath Bell from the Mets, signing Brian Sikorski from Japan [...]